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Announcement: U.S. Nominees for 2004 Hans Christian Andersen
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From: Kathleen Horning <horning>
Date: Mon, 02 Jun 2003 18:04:53 -0500
For Immediate Release Contact: Barbara Miriello 302s100, ext. 297 usbby at reading.org
U.S. Nominees for 2004 Hans Christian Andersen Awards
Lois Lowry and Vera B. Williams have been selected by the United States Board on Books for Young People as the author and illustrator nominees for the 2004 Hans Christian Andersen Medals.
These international awards are given biennially by the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY) to an author and an illustrator, living at the time of nomination, who by the outstanding value of the body of their work are judged to have made a lasting contribution to literature for children. Her Majesty Queen Margrethe II of Denmark is the patron of the Hans Christian Andersen Awards, which are regarded as the highest international distinction given to any author or illustrator of children's books. Nomination in itself is a high honor. Winners of the 2004 Hans Christian Andersen Awards will be announced in April next year. The medals will be presented during the 29th IBBY Congress to be held in Cape Town, South Africa, September 5-9, 2004.
For more than 25 years and in over 30 books, Lois Lowry has enriched the lives of those who read books for young people. All of Lowry's books have been edited by Walter Lorraine and published by Houghton Mifflin. Her works have received numerous awards, including two prestigious Newbery Awards for distinguished writing. The Newbery winner Number the Stars (1989), a tightly paced historical novel for young readers, takes place in occupied Denmark during World War II. Lowry's second Newbery winner The Giver (1993) is a seminal work of speculative fiction offering a chilling, provocative glimpse of a future society. Recently The Giver has been selected across this nation as a book for reading and discussion by community members of all ages. In a companion novel Gathering Blue (2000), Lowry examines the power of the arts during a bleak age while asking the nature of a viable society.
Lowry's first book for young readers A Summer to Die (1987) received immediate recognition. Along with Rabble Starkey (1987), it exemplifies Lorry's serious novels showing her skill in shaping believable young contemporary characters with serious family concerns. Lorry also writes light-hearted family stories, most notably two series featuring a character named Anastasia and her younger brother Sam.
In her literary memoir Looking Back: A Book of Memories (1998), Lorry developed a form interweaving family photographs and passages from her children's books with life experiences that have served as some of her creative sources. She shared her knowledge of crafting fiction with younger readers in the episodic story Gooney Bird Greene (2002). Lorry's latest novel The Silent Boy (2003) is another unique work of historical fiction revealing her mastery of voice, characterization and narrative pace.
Lois Lowry's works show her wide range as a writer. Each book is a model of the best in its genre with its words precisely selected and arranged with grace. She is versatile, inventive creator of narrative form and story idea. Within the wide variety of her works, serious and light-hearted alike, she addresses the human connections within families, communities, and society. Her books have been translated into many languages, including Chinese, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Korean, Japanese, Spanish, and Swedish.
Andersen Award nominee Vera B. Williams has created highly original books for children of all ages. Each of her books is memorable for its unique visual appeal and emotional impact and beloved within young families. Williams makes bold choices in using color. Her distinctive artwork sets her books apart from all others in the nation today. Williams often incorporates text lettering within the artwork in books noted for their intensely hued gouache paintings. Since 1978, her books have been published by Greenwillow Books and were edited by Susan Hirschman with art direction by Ava Weiss. Her current editor is Virginia Duncan of Greenwillow Books.
The signature book of Vera B. Williams is "More, More, More," said the Baby: Three Love Stories (1990). Named a Caldecott Honor Book, this first picture book is universal in its depiction of three very young children each cherished in turn by a father, grandmother and mother. A Chair for My Mother (1982), another Caldecott Honor Book, portrays a young girl, her hard-working mother and grandmother as an economically struggling family for whom beauty is one of their basic needs. Williams celebrates ways a child can become part of a neighborhood embracing generations and cultures in Music, Music for Everyone (1984) and Scooter (1993). Themes of camaraderie and self-reliance between a child and elders launched on adventure are hallmarks of Three Days on a River in a Red Canoe (1981) and Stringbean's Trip to the Shining Sea (1988). Postcard-like texts and images relate the latter story created by Williams in collaboration with her daughter Jennifer. In Amber Was Brave, Essie Was Smart (2002), two resourceful young sisters worry about their absent father and scarce family money are characterized in a highly original album-like volume of unrhymed poems and artwork created with pencil drawings.
The small picture book Lucky Song (1997) encapsulates the big ideas Williams expresses in each of her other books. Here little Evie has all any child anywhere needs to grow and flourish, a family giving her a home with food, clothing, time and a place to play, even a kite to fly, and a song to sing at bedtime. The artist's expressionistic paintings and ebullient use of a full range of colors capture this universal child doing quite ordinary family things with extraordinary vitality. Here toddlers can see themselves and begin to understand who they are at a deep level long before they can articulate the profound humanity expressed in Lucky Song. These and Williams' other innovative books invite young viewers to complete the visual stories in their own imaginations. Because of their universal appeal and her superb artwork, books by Vera B. Williams have a strong, lasting impact on young children and their families in all circumstances.
Members of the U.S. Hans Christian Andersen Award Committee are Oralia Garza de Cortes (Pasadena, California); Barbara Harrison (Cambridge, Massachusetts); Elizabeth Fitzgerald Howard (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania); Ginny Moore Kruse, chair
(Madison, Wisconsin); Dean Schneider (Nashville, Tennessee); Jewell Stoddard (Chevy Chase, Maryland); and Judith Zuckerman (Brooklyn, New York). Kathleen T. Horning
(Madison, Wisconsin) is the USBBY president during 2003.
The United States Board on Books for Young People facilitates the international exchange of information about books and reading. It serves as the U.S. national section of the International Board on Books for Young People. (IBBY). USBBY sponsors regional conferences that feature speakers of international interest and it co-sponsors sessions held at conferences of its patron organizations: the American Library Association, the International Reading Association, and the National Council of Teachers of English. It encourages the provision of high quality literature for young people throughout the world, and cooperates with IBBY and other international organizations with similar objectives.
Anyone interested in additional information about the Hans Christian Andersen Awards, IBBY, or USBBY may contact the United States Board on Books for Young People, 800 Barksdale Road, P.O. Box 8139, Newark, DE 19714?39, USA; phone 302s100, ext. 297; fax 302s157.
Kathleen T. Horning, Director Cooperative Children's Book Center University of Wisconsin-School of Education 4290 Helen C. White Hall 600 North Park St. Madison, WI 53706
horning at education.wisc.edu Voice: 608&3721 Fax: 608&2I33 www.education.wisc.edu/ccbc/
Received on Mon 02 Jun 2003 06:04:53 PM CDT
Date: Mon, 02 Jun 2003 18:04:53 -0500
For Immediate Release Contact: Barbara Miriello 302s100, ext. 297 usbby at reading.org
U.S. Nominees for 2004 Hans Christian Andersen Awards
Lois Lowry and Vera B. Williams have been selected by the United States Board on Books for Young People as the author and illustrator nominees for the 2004 Hans Christian Andersen Medals.
These international awards are given biennially by the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY) to an author and an illustrator, living at the time of nomination, who by the outstanding value of the body of their work are judged to have made a lasting contribution to literature for children. Her Majesty Queen Margrethe II of Denmark is the patron of the Hans Christian Andersen Awards, which are regarded as the highest international distinction given to any author or illustrator of children's books. Nomination in itself is a high honor. Winners of the 2004 Hans Christian Andersen Awards will be announced in April next year. The medals will be presented during the 29th IBBY Congress to be held in Cape Town, South Africa, September 5-9, 2004.
For more than 25 years and in over 30 books, Lois Lowry has enriched the lives of those who read books for young people. All of Lowry's books have been edited by Walter Lorraine and published by Houghton Mifflin. Her works have received numerous awards, including two prestigious Newbery Awards for distinguished writing. The Newbery winner Number the Stars (1989), a tightly paced historical novel for young readers, takes place in occupied Denmark during World War II. Lowry's second Newbery winner The Giver (1993) is a seminal work of speculative fiction offering a chilling, provocative glimpse of a future society. Recently The Giver has been selected across this nation as a book for reading and discussion by community members of all ages. In a companion novel Gathering Blue (2000), Lowry examines the power of the arts during a bleak age while asking the nature of a viable society.
Lowry's first book for young readers A Summer to Die (1987) received immediate recognition. Along with Rabble Starkey (1987), it exemplifies Lorry's serious novels showing her skill in shaping believable young contemporary characters with serious family concerns. Lorry also writes light-hearted family stories, most notably two series featuring a character named Anastasia and her younger brother Sam.
In her literary memoir Looking Back: A Book of Memories (1998), Lorry developed a form interweaving family photographs and passages from her children's books with life experiences that have served as some of her creative sources. She shared her knowledge of crafting fiction with younger readers in the episodic story Gooney Bird Greene (2002). Lorry's latest novel The Silent Boy (2003) is another unique work of historical fiction revealing her mastery of voice, characterization and narrative pace.
Lois Lowry's works show her wide range as a writer. Each book is a model of the best in its genre with its words precisely selected and arranged with grace. She is versatile, inventive creator of narrative form and story idea. Within the wide variety of her works, serious and light-hearted alike, she addresses the human connections within families, communities, and society. Her books have been translated into many languages, including Chinese, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Korean, Japanese, Spanish, and Swedish.
Andersen Award nominee Vera B. Williams has created highly original books for children of all ages. Each of her books is memorable for its unique visual appeal and emotional impact and beloved within young families. Williams makes bold choices in using color. Her distinctive artwork sets her books apart from all others in the nation today. Williams often incorporates text lettering within the artwork in books noted for their intensely hued gouache paintings. Since 1978, her books have been published by Greenwillow Books and were edited by Susan Hirschman with art direction by Ava Weiss. Her current editor is Virginia Duncan of Greenwillow Books.
The signature book of Vera B. Williams is "More, More, More," said the Baby: Three Love Stories (1990). Named a Caldecott Honor Book, this first picture book is universal in its depiction of three very young children each cherished in turn by a father, grandmother and mother. A Chair for My Mother (1982), another Caldecott Honor Book, portrays a young girl, her hard-working mother and grandmother as an economically struggling family for whom beauty is one of their basic needs. Williams celebrates ways a child can become part of a neighborhood embracing generations and cultures in Music, Music for Everyone (1984) and Scooter (1993). Themes of camaraderie and self-reliance between a child and elders launched on adventure are hallmarks of Three Days on a River in a Red Canoe (1981) and Stringbean's Trip to the Shining Sea (1988). Postcard-like texts and images relate the latter story created by Williams in collaboration with her daughter Jennifer. In Amber Was Brave, Essie Was Smart (2002), two resourceful young sisters worry about their absent father and scarce family money are characterized in a highly original album-like volume of unrhymed poems and artwork created with pencil drawings.
The small picture book Lucky Song (1997) encapsulates the big ideas Williams expresses in each of her other books. Here little Evie has all any child anywhere needs to grow and flourish, a family giving her a home with food, clothing, time and a place to play, even a kite to fly, and a song to sing at bedtime. The artist's expressionistic paintings and ebullient use of a full range of colors capture this universal child doing quite ordinary family things with extraordinary vitality. Here toddlers can see themselves and begin to understand who they are at a deep level long before they can articulate the profound humanity expressed in Lucky Song. These and Williams' other innovative books invite young viewers to complete the visual stories in their own imaginations. Because of their universal appeal and her superb artwork, books by Vera B. Williams have a strong, lasting impact on young children and their families in all circumstances.
Members of the U.S. Hans Christian Andersen Award Committee are Oralia Garza de Cortes (Pasadena, California); Barbara Harrison (Cambridge, Massachusetts); Elizabeth Fitzgerald Howard (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania); Ginny Moore Kruse, chair
(Madison, Wisconsin); Dean Schneider (Nashville, Tennessee); Jewell Stoddard (Chevy Chase, Maryland); and Judith Zuckerman (Brooklyn, New York). Kathleen T. Horning
(Madison, Wisconsin) is the USBBY president during 2003.
The United States Board on Books for Young People facilitates the international exchange of information about books and reading. It serves as the U.S. national section of the International Board on Books for Young People. (IBBY). USBBY sponsors regional conferences that feature speakers of international interest and it co-sponsors sessions held at conferences of its patron organizations: the American Library Association, the International Reading Association, and the National Council of Teachers of English. It encourages the provision of high quality literature for young people throughout the world, and cooperates with IBBY and other international organizations with similar objectives.
Anyone interested in additional information about the Hans Christian Andersen Awards, IBBY, or USBBY may contact the United States Board on Books for Young People, 800 Barksdale Road, P.O. Box 8139, Newark, DE 19714?39, USA; phone 302s100, ext. 297; fax 302s157.
Kathleen T. Horning, Director Cooperative Children's Book Center University of Wisconsin-School of Education 4290 Helen C. White Hall 600 North Park St. Madison, WI 53706
horning at education.wisc.edu Voice: 608&3721 Fax: 608&2I33 www.education.wisc.edu/ccbc/
Received on Mon 02 Jun 2003 06:04:53 PM CDT
